Dreadnought Battle Fleet on three days' cruise westward of Orkneys and Shetlands for gunnery and battle exercises.

Sixteen German aeroplanes seen in English Channel, but owing to bad weather they returned to Dunkirk, upon which 30 bombs are dropped during the day.

German aeroplanes prevented by French airmen from flying over Paris.

Further French progress in Soissons area at Hill132 and N of Perthes (Champagne).

British force occupied Mafia Islands off mouth of Rufiji (GE Africa).

]]>3135lish@gmail.com (Editor)ROOTSat, 10 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000Lieutenant Martin's Letters An ANZAC in The Great War Frederick William Scott Martin M Mhttp://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4262-lieutenant-martin-s-letters-an-anzac-in-the-great-war-frederick-william-scott-martin-m-m.html
http://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4262-lieutenant-martin-s-letters-an-anzac-in-the-great-war-frederick-william-scott-martin-m-m.htmlWritten by Anne McCoskerISBN: 978-1-90833-665-1Publisher and Date of Publication: Reveille Press 2013Length etc: 274 pp. with numerous black and white illustrations. Contains a selected WW1 bibliography and notes sections at the end of most chapters.

"Tons of Love to all from Fred"

Lieutenant Martin's Letters is written by his niece, Anne McCosker. It provides an account of the military service of a young Queenslander, Fred Martin, who served in the 9th and 10th Battalions of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) between 1914 and 1917. The book has been assembled from Fred Martin's letters, written to relatives in Australia, together with the author's background research including her personal experience of living in New Guinea and more recently in the Weymouth area, the UK wartime location of a substantial Australian military camp and hospital.

Fred Martin, the son of a schoolteacher, was born in 1895 in South Kolan, Queensland, north of Brisbane. Following a 1910 report by Lord Kitchener on Australia's defence needs, the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia instituted a system of compulsory military training for all males aged between 12 and 26, which included drill, rifle practice, first aid and physical exercise, in which Fred participated. In 1913 he joined the part-time 2nd Battalion of the Royal Queensland Regiment (also known as the Kennedy Regiment), originally formed some decades earlier as a citizen's militia. Immediately after the declaration of War, the Government received a request from London to seize German wireless stations in several Pacific island locations including Rabaul, New Guinea. Martin, with others in his Battalion, arrived at Port Moresby on 18 August but their onward journey was terminated by a combination of mutiny by the firemen on the troopship and recognition that the 'part-time' soldiers were inexperienced and lacking in equipment.

In January 1915, back in Australia, Martin voluntarily enlisted for service in the AIF, joining the 9th Battalion. Promoted to Sergeant in March 1915 he embarked with the 5th reinforcements in April, arriving at Alexandria on 26 May. By the end of June he had landed at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, where he stayed until being evacuated on medical grounds to Malta in September 1915 and then to Birmingham Hospital where he received treatment for enteric fever before transferring in late December to Weymouth for convalescence. It was not until the end of August 1916 that he managed to regain his health sufficiently to achieve his desired move to the Western Front, receiving a Military Medal for his part in action near Guedecourt on 24/25 February 1917. This was followed by promotion to 2nd-Lieutenant, transfer to the 10th Battalion AIF, and action in the "Battle of Polygon Wood" (September 1917).

The book is very much the personal story of Fred Martin, rather than the bigger picture of AIF involvement in the War. The author has concentrated on her strengths: Martin's family history, her familiarity with New Guinea, and her personal experience of being an Australian living in Britain (albeit in a later era). Using transcripts of Martin's letters, she has added relevant information from his service records (which on occasion differ from the detail of Martin's own account), and has included transcripts or photographs of relevant newspaper cuttings. I usually enjoy the accounts of experiences of individual servicemen and this was no exception, although on occasion, editing and proof-reading could have been improved. Unfortunately, while the images on the front cover are of excellent quality, many of the images used in the text have not survived the printing process in very good shape. Some newspaper cuttings and other documents are also too small or faint to be read easily in their entirety.

Reviewed by Chris Payne

]]>3135lish@gmail.com (Editor)ROOTSat, 08 Nov 2014 19:44:49 +0000Thursday, 5 November 1914http://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4243-thursday-5-november-1914.html
http://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4243-thursday-5-november-1914.htmlHMSS Invincible and Inflexible left Cromarty and Devonport to sail under Admiral Sturdee, who had been specially commissioned as C-in-C in S Atlantic and Pacific, to search out Admiral Spee's squadron.

Kaiser and Prince Henry of Prussia removed from British Royal Navy List.

British 1st Grenadier Battalion withdrawn from 7th Division line before Ypres with a strength of one officer and fewer than 90 men. On withdrawal the battalion proceeded to reform the King's Company, and did an hour's steady drill.

Germans repulsed near Roye.

German air raid on Reims.

Baron Sonnino, Italian Foreign Minister in new Salandra Cabinet.

Great Britain declared war on Turkey, "owing to hostile acts committed by Turkish forces under German officers."

Cyprus annexed by Great Britain.

France declared war on Turkey.

]]>3135lish@gmail.com (Editor)ROOTWed, 05 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000The Second Battle of the Somme or Operation Michael March 1918http://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4282-the-second-battle-of-the-somme-or-operation-michael-march-1918.html
http://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4282-the-second-battle-of-the-somme-or-operation-michael-march-1918.htmlIn 2012, the WFA's Bulletin printed "My Father's War" over 3 issues. This was an account of my father's experiences in the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, from his part at Audregnies, the day after Mons in August 1914, when he was the regiment's junior troop leader, until, by now adjutant, he was finally invalided home in August 1918 during the Battle of Amiens. The account includes the wound he received in September 1914 during the counter-attack to the Marne, as well as the Military Cross he won when the cavalry played their part in resisting the strong German attack in March 1918, known as Operation Michael.

Since writing My Father's War, I have come to understand better just how important was the desperate British rearguard action that March and, in presenting this account, I am hoping that among readers of the WFA's website and eNewsletter there may be someone with further knowledge of the action in which my father distinguished himself. Apart from his MC citation, my principal sources for what happened to him on 27 March 1918 were the regimental war diaries of the 4th Dragoon Guards and of the 11th Hussars.

Many WFA members will be aware of the background to Operation Michael, and I will summarise it briefly. At the beginning of 1918 the Russians were out of the war and the Germans were able to bring thousands of troops to the Western Front. 48 divisions in total were transferred. This was their last chance to break the Allies in France before the Americans had arrived in sufficient strength to turn the tide. They would do this by two major offensives: Operation George in Flanders; but, before that, would be Operation Michael along the line of the Somme. Operation Michael would divide the French and British armies and break through to Amiens and then to the Channel.

Operation Michael came frighteningly close to success. Many historians have written about it, including the two books on which I have mainly relied: John Keegan's The First World War; and Ring of Steel, Alexander Watson's recent book on the First War from the German and Austro-Hungarian perspective. Amiens was a vital part of the British supply chain, and Watson quotes General Sir Henry Rawlinson as saying that Amiens was "the only place in which the enemy can hope to gain such a success as to force the Allies to discuss terms of peace".

The southerly part of the German offensive was against the British Fifth Army, which was much weaker and less prepared than the armies further north. The Fifth Army had been heavily involved in 1917 at Passchendaele and had not fully recovered. Moreover, its southern end had relatively poor trenchworks and not enough men to repair them. John Keegan reminds us that the First World War was as much a digging war as a fighting one. Just how close to success the Germans came may be seen from some of the statistics Watson provides. Operation Michael was launched on 21 March and, by 5 April, when it came to a halt, the Fifth Army "had been shattered. Some 90,000 Allied troops had surrendered, among them 75,000 British, and 1,300 artillery pieces had been captured". The German Eighteenth Army had advanced 60 kilometres. The war diary of the 4th Dragoon Guards leaves no room for doubt as to the extent of the rout along the Somme. In My Father's War, I report how on 28 March the cavalry had to "rally (some) stragglers, marching them back to the support line".

Perhaps most dangerous of all for the Entente was that, when the German advance faltered, their leading units were within 5 miles of Amiens.

Yet, for an array of reasons, the Germans gained almost nothing of lasting value from Operation Michael.

Significantly, and one might have thought inexplicably, the German High Command, unlike General Rawlinson, did not realize just how grievous a blow it would have been for the British to lose Amiens. Instead of concentrating their efforts on taking the town, they divided their strength with attacks on several fronts.

Second, although British losses were serious, and many aspects of British leadership had been poor, much of their resistance was strong, not least in the crucial sector before Amiens, where my father was in action. The French, too, came to the aid of their allies and, by the time Operation Michael ended, the British were sending in up to 100,000 reinforcements. As a result the Germans' own losses were appalling, with some quarter of a million men killed, wounded or missing. To us today these numbers are simply beyond comprehension, and such German losses meant that when the big Allied attack came in August, the German Army was a largely spent force.

There was a further reason for the failure of Operation Michael. It is true that the initial German attack was carried out with great enthusiasm, but beneath it German discipline and morale were not good. The offensive would have gone more quickly, and might well have succeeded, had not the German troops stopped to plunder British supplies, mainly food and drink. All of Germany was by now suffering severe hardship from what was arguably Britain's most potent long-term weapon, the Royal Navy's blockade. Soldiers at the front may have fared better than the civilians at home – indeed there are reports that soldiers sent food parcels home, the reverse of what was happening with the Allies – but the relative abundance to be found in the captured British stores was too much to resist. Once they had exhausted British supplies, some of the advancing Germans even turned on their own depots.

During the famous "Hundred Days" between the beginning of the battle of Amiens in August 1918 and the Armistice, these German defects, together with greatly superior Allied equipment and, at last, better battlefield tactics, resulted in the decisive outcome in November 1918.

For a highly realistic fictional treatment of the Second Somme, readers may like to turn to the final chapters of John Buchan's Mr Standfast. Beyond doubt, the battle was of immense importance in ensuring not that the Allies won the war, but that the British did not lose it. I believe that on 27 March at the Somme village of Sailly-Laurette, my father's bravery contributed to denying the Germans the one thing that General Rawlinson believed could have won them the war: the fall of Amiens in March or April 1918.

Article and images contributed by Neil Munro.

]]>3135lish@gmail.com (Editor)ROOTMon, 03 Nov 2014 10:43:00 +0000The Battle of the Cockroft: a family returnshttp://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4222-the-battle-of-the-cockroft-a-family-returns.html
http://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4222-the-battle-of-the-cockroft-a-family-returns.htmlIt was an extraordinary experience for Sara Pritchard - to walk the fields in Flanders where her grandfather was badly wounded in a British tank a century ago. He died in 1974, aged 83, very soon after Sara was born, and this was her first visit.

Sara's grandfather was Gunner Robert Owen Arscott, a member of the crew of a Mark IV female tank G43, 'Gordon', which took part in the 'Battle of the Cockcroft' - a vicious engagement during the Third Battle of Ypres. He lost the sight of one eye.

The Cockcroft was a fortified German position defending the road from St Julien near Ypres to the village of Poelkapelle, and Gunner Owen Arscott (as he was known) was one of the crew of a Mark IV female tank, G43, called 'Gordon', tasked with attacking it.

As Owen Arscott's son, Peter, described in an article in 'Stand To!' in the spring of 1993, G43 was engaged in a fierce gun battle, and one of the Lewis guns jammed; the gun was removed from the sponson and a hail of bullets hit the mounting, sending splinters into his father's face. It was 12 hours before he could be taken to a field dressing station.

The Germans, not realising G43 was stuck in mud and only carried Lewis guns, evacuated the Cockcroft, and the commander of the tank, 2/Lt Coutts, left the tank, camouflaged it as a strongpoint, and went back to encourage infantry in the South Staffordshire Regiment to consolidate the position.

Sara took some treasured family mementoes to Poelkapelle, including her grandfather's 'Soldier's Own Diary' for 1917 said to contain 'useful information invaluable to every soldier at home or at the front.' His copy was dated 24 May 1917.

Owen made entries in the diary most days from spring until the end of 1917, including the day he was so badly wounded. 19 August was a Sunday, and there is little space in the diary for anything beyond one word: 'Wounded'. He then adds: 'Stretcher, Trolley, Ambulance', and there is reference to 'FDS' – a Field Dressing Station, and to France, where he ended up in a hospital at Etaples.

Entries are brief and some are in shorthand. Many, in the days and weeks after the attack, simply say: 'In bed'. But he records his recovery too, and it is clear from the diary that he enjoyed the theatre; there are references to trips to 'matinees'.

The diary contains a 'Soldier's Vocabulary', to help those not used to military life. Some words are familiar, like 'Rookey' for 'A recruit'. But some are surprising, like 'Yob', which had a meaning quite different from today; according to the notes, a 'Yob' was 'One who is easily fooled'. And some are strange: 'Vamping' for 'Eating heartily' and 'Square-bit' for 'Your best girl'.

Owen, who was born in Devonport, was a railway worker and engineer before the war but became a baker after being discharged. He had his own business in Pevensey, but took over his uncle's bakeries in Bexhill in the 1920s until he retired in 1959. He had three sons, one of whom was named Gordon, after G43. Gordon was killed in WWII.Sara, a nursery nurse from Southbourne near Chichester, was shown the Cockcroft by Johan Vanbeselaere, a teacher of engineering in Ypres, now part of a team building a full-scale working replica of another Mark IV tank, called Damon II, which took part in the assault on Poelkapelle in 1917. See: http://p1917a.blogspot.co.uk/

Sara was with her step-mother Mary Arscott, and her step-brother Drew Hewitt and wife Mary. Of the visit, she said: "It was extremely emotional and I feel much more connected with Grandad now."

]]>3135lish@gmail.com (Editor)ROOTSat, 01 Nov 2014 12:22:59 +0000The Gallant Headmasterhttp://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4151-the-gallant-headmaster.html
http://westernfrontassociation.com/2-uncategorised/4151-the-gallant-headmaster.htmlOur love and toil in the years to be;When we are grown and take our placeAs men and women with our race.

The Children's Song, Rudyard Kipling

We only went to one Carol Service at Emanuel School: it was in mid–December 2006 and my wife and I were seated close to the memorial to those former pupils and masters who died while serving during the Great War 1914–18. Although a fine canopied carving of St George and the Dragon forms a distinguished centrepiece, my eyes were drawn to the name 'H Buchanan Ryley, late Headmaster', towards the bottom of the right–hand column of names. There was also a separate brass plaque, confirming that Harold Buchanan Ryley had been Headmaster of Emanuel School from 1905 to 1913, with the words 'A Man Greatly Beloved' along the bottom. I felt instinctively that there had to be a story here: why would a former Headmaster have gone to war? It was only then that I noticed that a pupil named H B Ryley was also listed on the memorial.

Image: Emanual School, Battersea

The facts

The following Dacre Day – our son's last Commemoration Day at Emanuel – we visited the new library, with its fascinating selection of items from the school archives. Seeing the sepia photographs of Emanuel School Officer Training Corps (OTC) reminded me of the unusual case of the Reverend Harold Buchanan Ryley MA. I had a brief conversation with the school archivist, Tony Jones, and was rewarded, a few minutes later, with photocopies of sixty pages from 'The History of Emanuel School' by Charles Wilfrid Scott–Giles. What I read suggested that the former headmaster was a talented musician, gifted poet, committed patriot and inspiring leader – and fully deserving of further research.

Knowing that the Reverend Harold Buchanan Ryley and both his sons had been killed in action during the Great War, I visited the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site, which revealed the following information:

Second Lieutenant Harold Buchanan Ryley, The North Staffordshire Regiment, killed in action on 5 September 1916

Lieutenant Donald Arthur George Buchanan Ryley, The North Staffordshire Regiment, killed in action on 11 February 1917

Those were the facts – but what was the story? The Reverend George Buchanan Ryley, who was originally from Manchester, trained for the Congregational ministry at Cheshunt College, was ordained in 1867 and, later that year, married Isabella List. During the next few years he served as Independent Minister of the Hanover Chapel, Peckham, with a family home at 9, St Mary's Road. 'Scotland's Free Church: a Historical Retrospect and Memorial of the Disruption', written by George B Ryley, with notes on 'Progress and Finance' by John M MacCandlish, was published in 1893, the same year that G B Ryley moved to Harley Street Independent Church, Bow. The reviewer in The New York Times noted that the book concluded with a description of 'that great act of conscientiousness and sacrifice in 1843 that made eminent Scotchmen proud of their country, and added fresh nobility to the Christian world'. In 1897 the Reverend G B Ryley switched his allegiance to the established church, serving as a curate in Battersea for five years, before being appointed vicar of St Luke, Whyteleafe, in Surrey's Caterham Valley, in 1906.

Harold Buchanan Ryley senior; the eldest son of G B Ryley, was born at Bocking, Essex on 18 July 1868, educated at St Olave's Grammar School, Tooley Street, Southwark and was then awarded a scholarship to study at Exeter College, Oxford. Having achieved a Second in Moderations, the first set of examinations, his university career concluded with an undistinguished Class IV Bachelor of Arts in Literæ Humaniores (Classics) on 1 August 1891. On 14 March 1892 at the Congregational Church, Lewisham High Road, he was married by his father to Hughiena Lenny Florence, daughter of the late Donald Fraser. Hughiena's father, who was originally from Scotland, was a police superintendent in Carshalton, Surrey and, after retirement, became a local sanitory inspector. While he was alive, the Frasers lived at 48, Blenheim Grove, Carshalton; after his death in 1887, at the age of 69, the family moved to 44, Bousfield Road, Deptford. The Ryleys had two children: Donald Arthur George Buchanan Ryley, born at Colorado Springs, United States of America, on 5 July 1893, and Harold Buchanan Ryley junior, born in Wandsworth on 6 June 1896.

Having trained for the priesthood, H B Ryley was ordained in 1893 and accepted a curacy at Grace Church, Colorado Springs. After a brief American interlude, he returned to his old school the following year as an assistant master, also serving as a curate at St. John's, Battersea between 1896 and 1901.(1)

His musical abilities shone through and, during his time at St Olave's, H B Ryley wrote the settings to a number of hymns in the St Olave's Hymnal. When the Census was taken, at the beginning of April 1901, the Ryley family was living at 40, Elms Road, just off Clapham Common. Later that year, H B Ryley accepted a challenging new role as Headmaster of Sir Roger Manwood's Grammar School, Sandwich.

Rising to the challenge

In 1890 the Charity Commissioners had issued an ultimatum to the Trustees of the Sir Roger Manwood Charity: either the school – which had fallen into abeyance in the middle of the century – was successfully revived, or the charitable funds should be used for more general educational purposes. The Trustees were galvanised into action and, by 1895, Sir Roger Manwood's Grammar School had reopened on a new site, admittedly with a mere 16 pupils. Six years later, the 100th boy had just been admitted, when the headmaster suddenly resigned, taking his two senior teaching assistants with him, together with a quarter of the pupils. There was also the small matter of the completion of the 1895 building programme, which included a school assembly hall.

The new headmaster rose handsomely to the challenge, leaving the fine 'Big Hall' for his successor, restructuring the classes, changing the examination system, starting a school museum and establishing a preparatory school. The school historian wrote that 'perhaps the most significant event of Mr Ryley's régime was the founding of a Cadet Corps', commanded by the Headmaster. The entry in the Corps record book reads: 'The Cadet Corps was formed and put into working order some time before 27 July 1902, and was sanctioned as a Half–Company attached to the East Kent Volunteer Regiment, by the War Office, on April 28th 1903.' That autumn it mustered 59 NCOs and cadets.

The members of the Cadet Corps worked hard, with monthly uniform parades and two drill and two firing squads each week. In a Founder's Day address, the Headmaster emphasised that the training schedule was 'not conceived in any militaristic spirit, but with the positive aim of instilling smartness, discipline and leadership'. One of H B Ryley's final duties at Sir Roger Manwood's Grammar School was to command his Corps at a parade of more than 5,000 cadets in Hyde Park, where they were inspected by Field Marshal Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Queen Victoria's third son.

After four years of notable achievement, the Reverend H B Ryley returned to London from Sandwich in September 1905, in order take up his new appointment as headmaster (and chaplain) of Emanuel School on Battersea Rise. The Governing Body supported the appointment by 11 votes, compared with 6 for Ryley's closest rival, the senior science master at Westminster. The new headmaster's dynamic approach soon made an impact and, according to the History, Emanuel 'achieved recognition by the Board of Education' the following year. During Ryley's tenure as Headmaster, there were enhancements and innovations that affected every aspect of school life: pupil numbers increased from 359 in 1906 to a pre–war peak of 562 in 1912; examination results steadily improved; the school was divided into 'classical' and 'modern' sides; the house system was adopted in 1906; (2) a new school library was built in 1907; the Debating Society was founded in 1910, the same year that transition to a day school was completed, with the boarding dormitories converted into classrooms; rugby football was adopted as the school game; while the origins of Emanuel as a rowing school can be dated to 1913.

Five years after the Reverend Harold Buchanan Ryley had taken over, the inspectors reported: 'There is, indeed, every indication that the school promises to become a very important day school.' In short, Emanuel School had been transformed during his headmastership into an institution of the first rank, with traditions and standards that have stood the test of time. Among his personal achievements were a setting to music of Rudyard Kipling's Recessional, adopted as one of the school songs, and an introduction to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Earlier Poems, published in 1910. On the night of 2/3 April 1911, when the Census was taken, the Ryley family was living in the Headmaster's House at Emanuel School. It was a large household comprising the Ryley family; his 81 year–old mother–in–law, Kate; two unmarried sisters–in–law, Margaret and Eugenie Fraser; an 18 year–old nephew, Donald George Johnson; together with two servants.

Imposing figure

The Headmaster had lost none of his enthusiasm for military matters. In May 1906 he was appointed to command the Cadet Company at Emanuel School, designated as Z Company, Queen's Westminster Rifles, initially with 82 members. On 11 February 1909, Ryley took command of Emanuel School OTC, when it 'emerged' from the Cadet Corps. He retained that commission until resigning, on 'proceeding to America', on 21 January 1914. It is noted in his Army records that 'Inspection Reports of Emanuel School OTC, which he commanded, were uniformly good for the years he was in command, viz:– 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912 & 1913'. As the photograph suggests, Harold Buchanan Ryley was an imposing figure: 5 feet 11 inches tall, he weighed fourteen–and–a–half stone and had a 42–inch chest.

In the History, Scott–Giles was naturally reticent, writing that 'private troubles and ill–health led Mr Ryley to relinquish his headship in 1913'. The truth was slightly more complicated but, in the light of the subsequent, tragic events, it was perfectly understandable that no further explanation should have been forthcoming while many of those involved were still alive. Despite his many and varied achievements during the preceding eight years, the strain had clearly begun to tell on H B Ryley senior. On 17 March 1913, the minutes of the Governing Body reveal that his behaviour led to the resignations of two preparatory school mistresses. Meanwhile he had re-admitted as scholars, on his own initiative, boys whose scholarships had already been formally terminated.

Having apologised to the Governing Body, pleading that he had the best interests of the school at heart, Ryley then compounded his error by writing ill–considered letters to the two mistresses. They, in turn, raised the issue once again with the Governing Body, which was already of the view that the headmaster was close to nervous collapse. Feeling that their authority had been undermined, the Governing Body demanded Ryley's resignation, which was accepted on 28 July 1913.

Despite his protestations, the Governing Body was given no reasons for doubting that they had adopted the correct course of action. On 9 Feb 1914, the Governing Body minutes reveal that the headmaster's personal finances had become thoroughly intertwined with those of the school, the financial situation of which was chaotic. It also emerged that Ryley had made improper use of certain school fees for his own account, charging to petty cash for weekly wages and board a sum greater than the actual cost, while he had also retained profits from the sale of school caps and cap–badges. H B Ryley senior sailed for the United States on 23 January 1914 and no further action was taken.

In his new history, Nigel Watson summarised Ryley's period of office: 'A man of immense energy, he set himself such ambitious aims that, without any secretarial support, he often suffered from nervous exhaustion brought on by overwork.' As the reader will discover, he was a lonely figure – with no–one to turn to during times of stress. Ironically, his replacement as headmaster, Shirley Goodwin, was very soon given a secretary in order to assist him with his heavy work–load, and particularly the adminstrative burden. Meanwhile Ryley's two sons remained in England in order to complete their education.

Donald and 'Bay'

His elder son, Donald, was educated at Sir Roger Manwood's Grammar School and later at St Olave's, Southwark. In May 1912 he was awarded an exhibition to read Classics at St John's College, Cambridge, joining Cambridge University OTC as a private soldier in October 1912. However, he was never awarded his degree, applying instead for a special reserve commission in the army on 26 August 1914. Posted initially to 1/8 Battalion, The Manchester Regiment (Territorial Forces), he saw service in Gallipoli from 20 October 1915, it being noted that he did 'good reconnaissance work in Turkish trenches'. On 29 August 1916, he was ordered 'home from Egypt by first public opportunity', joining 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment, with a permanent commission, on 12 October 1916.

His younger son, Harold Buchanan junior, Captain of Emanuel – popularly known as 'Bay' – spent three years in the OTC, achieving the rank of sergeant. On 30 November 1913, he received Officer Training Corps Certificate 'A', signed by the future Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Major General William Robertson, confirming that he had 'fulfilled the necessary conditions as to efficient service, and has qualified in the Infantry syllabus of examination'. It was therefore perfectly natural that, on 16 September 1914, Bay Ryley should have 'requested that [he] may be appointed to a temporary commission in the Regular Army for the period of the war'.

Like his elder brother, Bay Ryley was commissioned into The North Staffordshire Regiment, his name appearing in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 6 May 1915. Although officially on the books of the 4th Battalion, he served with the 1st Battalion, which is quite understandable. The 4th Battalion was a special reserve battalion, previously referred to as a militia battalion, one of the roles of which was to provide officers and men to the regular battalions during war–time. While the strength of Emanuel School's OTC explains why so many Emanuel School alumni joined the army, it remains a puzzle why six contemporaries should all have served in The North Staffordshire Regiment.

Bay Ryley's five Emanuel contemporaries in The North Staffordshire Regiment Officers' Mess were William Frank Godfrey, Ivor Austin While, Leslie William Tattersall Pine (who later served with The Hampshire Regiment and was killed in action in Flanders on 18 August 1917), Percy Mathison Brooks (who survived the war and later became editor of Melody Maker) and George Mason (who was slightly younger and was killed in action in Flanders on 15 April 1918). The names of the first three appear with that of Bay Ryley in the same edition of the London Gazette. The philosophy of the Pals' Battalions clearly worked in a number of different ways, often with unanticipated consequences, as in this instance.

On 31 August 1916, Second Lieutenant Ivor While was killed on the Somme, while serving with 1st Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment. According to the Battalion's war diary, whilst he 'very gallantly resisted the enemy's advance in the trench' he was 'unfortunately reported 'wounded & missing''. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial and also by a brass plaque in Emanuel School Chapel. Just three days later, Second Lieutenant William Godfrey was killed at Delville Wood on the Somme, while attached to 72nd Trench Mortar Company, which was part of 72nd Brigade, of which 1/North Staffs also formed a part. Godfrey is buried at Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval and there is also a brass plaque to his memory in Emanuel School Chapel. Worse was to follow.

Same narrow front

On 16 September 1916, the War Office addressed a telegram to 'H Ryley, The Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut' that was to set off a tragic sequence of events: 'Deeply regret to inform you that 2 Lieut H B Ryley North Staffordshire Regiment was killed in action September 5. The Army Council express their sympathy.' In The Times of the same date, there was a notice: 'Killed in action on 7th Sept, while leading his men in an attack, Lieut Harold Buchanan Ryley, of the North Staffordshire Regiment, son of the Rev H B Ryley, and grandson of the Rev G Buchanan Ryley, Vicar of Whyteleafe, Surrey.'

Like William Godfrey, Bay Ryley was also killed at Delville Wood on the Somme and, having no known grave, is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. The apparent discrepancy in his date of death is repeated elsewhere: while the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website gives 5 September, the memorial in St Luke's, Whyteleafe is engraved with 7 September. Three Old Emanuels had been killed on the same narrow front of the Somme battlefield in less than a week.

After learning that the telegram had not been delivered successfully, the War Office duly contacted the Reverend G B Ryley who, on 21 September 1916, gave his son's address as Hotel Walton, De Funiak Springs, Florida. The news of his younger son's death reached H B Ryley in Florida and his immediate reaction was to return to England and volunteer for active service. No–one should have been surprised. Some years earlier, Harold Buchanan Ryley had written a poem, Adsum, which was printed in the Easter 1911 edition of The Portcullis, the Emanuel School magazine. One of the verses read:

So when the banded nations stand,And the day has dawned of England's fate;When the war–clouds gather o'er sea and land,And the foot of the foe is at our gate;Oh then, in the time of our Mother's need,Be ours the will, be ours the deed,Ours be the strength elate,Ours be one voice outringing clear:'England! I'm here!'

Both his sons had already answered the call – and now it was his turn. On 27 September 1916, Lewis Moses Ltd, Naval, Military and Civil Outfitters, of 67 New Oxford Street were insensitively quick to submit a final account to the Secretary of the War Office in respect of the sum of £1 11s 9d (£1.58) that they were owed by their recently–deceased client. The account was settled by his father. On 16 November 1916, H B Ryley senior completed and signed his application for a commission and, shortly afterwards, was posted to the 2nd Garrison Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment. The battalion's role was to defend parts of the exposed coastline and vital installations of East Anglia. Ryley was based initially at the Golf House, Felixstowe and later at Harwich, where he was billeted at 29, Esplanade and formed part of Shotley Barrier Guard.

Around that time, he wrote to the school: 'Perhaps you would like to add my name to the 'Portcullis' Pro Patria List. If so, I am now Lieutenant of the above regiment.' Somewhat fatalistically, he added, 'I wish my name could go next to dear old Bay's, but ... ' Of 801 Emanuel alumni listed on the Pro Patria List, 142 lost their lives, together with three of their masters. With their natural dash, enthusiasm and flair for leadership, Emanuel School's most talented sportsmen were to the fore: of the 1st XV 1912–13, 8 were killed (including Bay Ryley), 3 were wounded and 1 was missing in action, presumed dead.

On 15 February 1917, Donald Ryley's paternal grandfather – given by both sons as their next–of–kin while their father was in the United States – was sent a telegram by the War Office informing him that his grandson was 'missing'. This distressing news was reported in the 20 February edition of The Times. On 21 August 1917, the Reverend G B Ryley wrote to the War Office, noting that 'since then we have heard nothing, save that by private enquiry we find his brother Officers & others believe him to be killed'. Three days later, the War Office confirmed that no indication of Donald Ryley's fate had been discovered, despite searches of hospital and internment camps in Germany, under the auspices of the Netherlands Legation.

On 13 September 1917, C F Watherston of C 2 Casualties Department at the War Office wrote to the Reverend H B Ryley:

'I am directed to inform you that it is regretted that no further report has been received concerning Lieutenant D A G B Ryley, The North Staffordshire Regiment, reported Missing 11th February, 1917. It is regretted that it will consequently be necessary for the Army Council to consider whether they must not now conclude that this officer is dead.'

Notice of his presumed death was printed in The Times on 8 November 1917. Lieutenant Donald Ryley is now officially recorded as having been killed in action near Hulluch in France's Pas–de–Calais. He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial since he has also no known grave.

Charles Scott–Giles co–edited Harold Buchanan Ryley senior's obituary in The Portcullis, taking care to include extracts from one of his subject's last letters:

'I was over at Emanuel yesterday to see old Appleyard and look at the place for what, I doubt not, will be the last time ... I have been ordered to hold myself in readiness to go to the Front at short notice. There I shall be at first on 'lines of communication,' but I mean to wriggle up into the trenches somehow, somewhere. I said goodbye to my old mother and father on Sunday – a good day and a good place to say goodbye. You who know me can guess how eager I am for the Front, and how glad to have the chance. To all old boys of Emanuel and 'Stogs' give my 'Salvete, amici'.' Scott–Giles noted that 'perhaps the pith was in the postscript': 'Bay's sword was recovered and my mother has it now, thank goodness.'

Egyptian Expeditionary Force

On 18 October 1917, Lieutenant H. B. Ryley embarked in SS Huntspill to join the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Having arrived at Alexandria on 1 November, he joined the 1/5 Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment, 163rd Infantry Brigade, 54th Division from details camp at Belfa at 6.00am on 6 November 1917. The Battalion's war diary recorded that it was a rude introduction: 'Enemy bombardment also increases and becomes intense about midday: from which time it continues heavily without intermission until 1745.' Five days earlier.

1/5 Suffolks had captured the El Arish Redoubt, an important defensive feature, during what later became known as the Third Battle of Gaza, at a cost of almost 100 casualties, including twenty–nine killed. Despite this final show of resistance from their artillery, the Turks finally abandoned Gaza – which they had successfully defended during the two previous battles, in March and April 1917 – the night of Ryley's arrival. The Turkish Eighth Army then withdrew on Jerusalem, with the intention of making a final stand between that city and the sea. Meanwhile the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, under General Allenby, pushed forward relentlessly. The 54th Division advanced up the coast road towards the ancient port of Jaffa, now known as Tel–Aviv.

During the next three weeks, spent out of contact the enemy, 1/5 Suffolks made a number of route marches, interspersed with training days. By 1 December they were established in trenches at Yehidiyah, opposite the final Turkish defence line in front of Jerusalem. Apart from sporadic shelling, and an abortive Turkish attack on Norfolk Post on 11 December, the following two weeks passed relatively quietly. The Battalion war diary noted: 'Rainy weather. Companies work on trenches whenever possible. But work and drill by day impossible owing to enemy aeroplane activity.' On 13 December, though, 'warning received of intended attack on Kh Bornat W. 13 D. on the 15th'. Brigade Operation Order No. 34 read: 'The 163rd Brigade will advance and prolong the line from Kh Ibanneh (exclusive) through Cistern Hill to Kh El Bornat and Et Tireh to the Railway (inclusive) at a point which links up with the Wilhelma defences.' It was a two–phase assault; with 1/5 Suffolks fulfilling the role of left assault battalion during the second phase.

On the following day,

'all Company Officers and Platoon Sergeants inspect the ground and the objectives during the morning ... Battalion order for attack issued at 1430'. On 15 December 1917 'at 0800 the Battalion debouches from the trees for attack – after a preliminary bombardment of 1st Objective – Sangar Hill – for 10 minutes. Met with heavy fire from 4 M.G.s causing about 30 casualties but they quickly get into dead ground and good cover among the rocks. The enemy is observed dismounting his gun and getting behind hill. Hill gained at 0820 – 1 prisoner – 4 dead observed. There being no fire from flanks the assaulting Companies A & C press on. B follows in support and D the reserve Company remains on Sangar. A & C Companies gain the crest of Bornat without opposition and commence to consolidate at 0850. B Company join them and watch the right flank. D Company commences to carry up material for consolidation.

'Enemy heavily bombard summit of Bornat causing many casualties as the advanced slope is very exposed. Battalion Headquarters move to Bornat at 0945. At this time the enemy is shelling the approaches but has apparently not registered the main valley of approach near Bornat – few casualties – Total casualties during advance and after found to be 1 Officer & 7 O.R. killed – 2 Officers 62 O.R. wounded. Positions improved at night by digging in, building up sangars etc. Night bitterly cold and the arrival of the blankets and greatcoats at 2300 gives the men a chance to rest.'

That rest was eternal for Lieutenant Harold Buchanan Ryley, who had managed to 'wriggle' his way forward, just as he had promised, and who was the only officer from 1/5 Suffolks to be killed that day. Hedley J Evans, Music Master at Emanuel School, wrote in The Kipling Journal that 'we were able to glean few details of his death beyond that he received a bullet through the head while gallantly leading his men'. This suggests that he was killed by a burst of machine–gun fire at the start of the attack. Initially buried with Yehudiyah District Military Graves, his remains now lie in Ramleh War Cemetery, some twenty miles south–east of Tel Aviv in Israel.

Tragic twist

There was An Appreciation by the VI Form of Emanuel School in The Portcullis:

'One by one, with heavy hearts and loving memory, we have recorded the passing of many dear friends we have known and respected. And now the sad news has reached us that the Rev. H. Buchanan Ryley has laid down his life for King and Country, treading the path of honour and glory over which, only a few months previously, his two sons had walked and given their all for England ... We can almost imagine his tall, imposing figure, with his genial smile, coming across the playing fields to watch a match. Perhaps the most familiar sight of all, when he was with us, and one that showed a most human and gentle side of his character, was to see him walking along the corridors with his favourite collie.'

There was now just one member of that branch of the Ryley family left alive. Harold Buchanan Ryley's application for a commission reveals an added dimension of sadness, which may explain some of what happened subsequently. On the form he wrote tersely: 'I lost my wife 11 years ago'. However, the Letters of Administration confirm that he died 'intestate without child leaving Hughiena Florence Ryley his lawful widow and relict who is now a person of unsound mind'. His estate was valued at just £114 13s 10d. On 7 September 1918, the Reverend George Buchanan Ryley summarised the tragic situation in a letter to the War Office: 'My daughter–in–law, mother of these officers, has been many years in a lunatic asylum; and their father and after him, they, were her natural support.'

Throughout his challenging time at Emanuel, Ryley therefore had no–one with whom to share the burden of his onerous responsibilities. Indeed, his wife's mental illness must have been a major influence on his own state of nervous exhaustion. There was one further, tragic twist. On 29 July 1919, Hughiena Ryley died at the City of London Mental Hospital at Stone, near Dartford, Kent from 'septic inflammation of the liver and perforation of the stomach and gall bladder due to swallowing a bristle from a bass broom'. (3) The Reverend Harold Buchanan Ryley's parents did not long survive her, his father dying on 26 October 1925, aged 82, and his mother on 16 October 1930, at the age of 84. Towards the end of their lives, they had endured much sadness. The Celtic cross which commemorates them stands close to the war memorial bearing the names of their son and two grandsons, outside the west door of St. Luke's, Whyteleafe. On the north wall of the church itself, there is a fine marble memorial to their three gallant descendants.

After their deaths, the Reverend George Buchanan Ryley fought a number of financial battles with the War Office on behalf of their estates. On 7 November 1918, just four days before the Armistice, he received a letter about gratuities. Bay Ryley was entitled to a 'Gratuity of 248 days' pay at 7/6 a day under Articles 496 and 497 Royal Warrant for Pay', equating to £93 0s 0d. On the other hand, as Lieutenant Donald Ryley 'held a permanent commission in the Regular Army, he was not entitled to a Gratuity'. The rules were later changed and, on 25 February 1920, the War Office confirmed that Donald Ryley's estate was in fact entitled to a Gratuity of £58: '£40 for the first year of War Service and £1 for each additional month or part of a month of such service.'

On 24 December 1924, P V Hincks wrote to the War Office:

'I shall be greatly obliged if you will kindly inform me of the actual date in December 1917 on which Harold Buchanan Ryley was killed in action. He was a Lieutenant in the Suffolk Regt., & was serving in Palestine, I believe, at the time of his death. The information is required in connection with the erection of a memorial tablet at Emanuel School, where Mr. Ryley was Headmaster for some years.'

One of the poems that the Reverend H B Ryley set to music was The Children's Song from Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill. In 1929 Hedley J Evans wrote a fine epitaph of 'the Gallant Headmaster' in The Kipling Journal:

'It is singularly fitting that the name of a brave man, who, after years devoted to the education of children, and giving himself and his sons to the land of their birth, should be associated with a song beloved by every child that has learnt it.'

Under the rules of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the family of the deceased may choose a modest inscription to appear at the foot of the Portland stone grave marker. The words engraved on the Reverend Harold Buchanan Ryley's gravestone reflect the sentiments of his poem, Adsum:

For the Motherland

Article contributed by Jeremy Archer

References(1) The former school buildings are currently owned by Berkeley Homes, who are proposing to convert them into a 'boutique' hotel. The school moved to Orpington in 1968.

(2) The five houses – Marlborough, Wellington, Lyons, Clyde and Howe – were called after the two naval and three military heroes whose names were painted on the doors of the dormitories of the orphanage erected, at the behest of the Trustees of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Fund, after the Crimean War. Three more houses – Rodney, Nelson and Drake – have since been added.

(3) The institution closed in 2003 and English Partnerships are currently pursuing plans to convert the former premises of Stone House Hospital into luxury apartments. The best–known patient at the City of London Mental Hospital was Ivor Gurney, the composer and poet, who died there on 26 December 1937.

Bibliography

The History of Emanuel School by Charles Wilfrid Scott–Giles, published by The Portcullis, Redhill in 1935; revised editions published in 1948 and 1966.

Emanuel School: An Illustrated History by Nigel Watson, published in 2008.

The Portcullis, various editions.

The Archives of Emanuel School, Battersea, which were assiduously trawled on my behalf by Tony Jones and Daniel Kirmatzis.

A History of Sir Roger Manwood's School Sandwich 1563–1963, by John Cavell and Brian Kennett.

The Kipling Journal, No. 8, January 1929.

Crockford's Clerical Directory.

National Archives: WO95/4658 – War Diary of 1st/5th Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment, 163rd Infantry Brigade, January 1916 – October 1919.

The War Memorial in Emanuel School ChapelThe memorial to the Reverend Harold Buchanan Ryley in Emanuel School ChapelLieutenant H. B. Ryley senior in his OTC uniformThe Headmaster with his fellow teachersThe Headmaster with Emanuel School PrefectsThe Headmaster with Emanuel School ChoirLieutenant D. A. G. B. Ryley, The North Staffordshire RegimentOfficer Training Corps Certificate "A" – Harold Buchanan Ryley juniorSecond Lieutenant H. B. 'Bay' Ryley, The North Staffordshire RegimentLondon Gazette extractThe memorial to Second Lieutenant Ivor Austin While, The North Staffordshire Regiment, in Emanuel School ChapelSecond Lieutenant William Frank Goodwin, The North Staffordshire RegimentSecond Lieutenant Percy Mathison Brooks, The North Staffordshire RegimentGeneral view of Ramleh War CemeteryLieutenant H. B. Ryley's grave in Ramleh War CemeterySt. Luke, WhyteleafeWar memorial at St. Luke, WhyteleafeDetail from war memorial at St. Luke, WhyteleafeMemorial to the Ryley family in St. Luke, WhyteleafeCeltic cross in memory of the Reverend G. B. Ryley at St. Luke, Whyteleafe

This publication is the culmination of a project for the Headingly Literary Festival (LitFest) which commenced in July 2012 and culminated with the book's launch on 21 March 2014 at the LitFest. It sets out to describe the experience of some of the staff and patients of the 2nd Northern General Hospital. The hospital was established at the commencement of hostilities in 1914 in the building in Beckett Park occupied by the City of Leeds Training College where the training of teachers had commenced only a year earlier.

The book starts with a short introduction giving a brief history of the Hospital. It highlights the forward planning by the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) for the setting up of a number of hospitals in the north of England in the event of a conflict. As a result of this forward thinking within two weeks of the commencement of hostilities 600 beds were available at the newly formed hospital together with 92 nursing staff. The first wounded arrived on 17 September 1914 and in all some 57,000 patients were admitted to the hospital during the course of the war. The hospital commenced work as a general hospital but as the war developed and the casualties mounted treatment expanded into rehabilitation, and in 1917 the whole hospital was converted into a Special Surgical Hospital specialising in orthopaedics. The demands of the war necessitated considerable expansion, and at its largest the hospital had 3,200 beds accommodated in a large number of extension wards situated in huts in the hospital grounds. Of note is the significant quantity of money raised from voluntary contributions to pay for the expansion.

The stories commence with that of Private Robert Bass. His experiences are fairly typical of soldiers wounded during the war. Shot in the leg and hit by shrapnel in the shoulder during the 8th Surrey's attack on Montaubon Ridge on 1 July 1916 Pte Bass was evacuated to 1st Eastern General Hospital at Cambridge, arriving on 7 July. Discharged on 28 August he was granted 10 days leave before reporting to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Essex Regiment. On 29 April 1917, during the Arras offensive, he was wounded by shrapnel which tore away his upper lip, some of his upper jaw and most of his teeth. Evacuated to the 4th Northern General Hospital in Lincoln on 4 May he received treatment there until being transferred to Beckett Park on 5 June. Here the full extent of the bone loss to the upper jaw were documented and Pte Bass underwent some 7 months of regular extractions of bone fragments and surgery with Pte Bass sedated by an ether and chloroform mix. Subsequent photographs of Pte Bass show the effectiveness of the reconstructive work carried out by the hospital.

The book goes on to detail an eclectic mix of stories about individuals, some with tenuous links to the hospital, together with anecdotes and background information. The overall impression is of a random collection of stories provided by the public or uncovered by the team as a result of research by the LitFest project team. This is not to say the stories lack appeal but for serious students of the First World War it is unlikely to add much to their knowledge. It does, however, provide some interesting general information and human interest stories and will be of particular relevance to the good people of Leeds wishing to learn more about the history of their city.